This invention relates generally to the field of printing systems, and more particularly to printers in which the print heads do not move during printing operations.
For printing applications such as printing out envelopes or letters for large mailings, it may be desirable to print at faster rates than is possible with printers that employ moving print heads. For these applications, high speed printing systems have been developed that employ two or more print heads that are fixed during printing operations. The positions of the print heads may be adjusted during set-up for a print job.
Conventional print preview software has not provided satisfactory guidance to users in regard to fixed-head printers. A fixed head printer can only print on the portions of the substrate (e.g., envelope or letter stock) which correspond to the positions of the print heads set for the printing job. But conventional print preview displays fail to take into account the “dead zones” on the substrate resulting from the positioning of the fixed heads. As a result, conventional print preview displays may present a misleading image of the print layout that will actually be produced. For example, a conventional print preview display (or a display provided during composition of a print layout) may show text in a portion of the printing stock profile that cannot be printed on by the print heads as currently positioned. In other words, with conventional print preview displays for fixed-head printers, what you see is not necessarily what you get. Consequently, printing errors may occur in which text appears on the printed items at different locations from those the user desired. This may lead to decreased efficiency, spoiled printing stock, and lost time and effort.